Frosty's 1st foal

[Willem vd Mescht]

Hi guys and girls,

Just want to quickly say that Frosty had her 1st foal. Unfortunately I don't know the exact date he was conceived, only that the stallion was with her from Dec 2009 to May 2010. So I don't know exactly when her due date was, but the foal seem to be a bit premature. He arrived early yesterday morning. When I got to him he was still wet. 2-3 hours later he hasn't got up yet and I realized that I have a problem. I had to pick him up and make him stand, but he would sit down like a dog as soon as I let go and then roll over. I had to hold him up like that to get him to drink from Frosty. So all day yesterday I had to go hold him so that he can drink. And also most of the night.

By this morning he could find the milk by himself and walk around, but he still needed help to get up. So every hour I still had to go pick him up. And now at last I see he is managing to get up by himself, but I still go check on him every 60 - 90 minutes and just make sure that I see him at drink at least once during that time. Attatched is a photo of my new bow, taken yesterday morning, early.

[Presence]

Oh cute, look at his ears!!!
What did your vet say?

[Willem vd Mescht]

Yesterday my little boy was 1 month old. After his rocky start, he is doing well now.

After the two sleepless nights, he also got diarrhoea over the weekend. No, I didn't get a vet out. I just self medicate where and when I can and only when I see an animal is really in deep trouble do I call the vet. I gave him some tablets that I had here that I had for calves that I raised a few years ago and within 30 minutes he clearly felt better and after some more tablets the next day, the diarrhoea stopped.

A few days later he got stronger and then decided that it is a good idea to kick at me. So he got a smack on his bum, three times. That also made him a bit weary of me. At first I thought that maybe I made a mistake in doing that, but then again kicking is a "I'll kill you, if you do it again" offence, so I guess rather have him a bit scared of me, than getting him in the habit of kicking.

So after that I just applied the same things I would do with a big horse. When he wanted to get away from me I "chased" him by just walking after him and stamping my feet, with Frosty (his mom) normally following me, supervising :-). If he stop, even if he don't turn and face me, I bend forward to make myself smaller and then get next to him and scratch his neck. I could still see that he was scared of me and he would do the snapping thing, but he was also learning that best would be to stay with me, even if he is afraid.

By now he is quite happy having me around again and every morning he get a hug. He use to want to pull away when I hugged him, but now he is standing still for that too.

A few days ago, for the first time, I put a rope round his neck. At first he pulled away, against the rope to the side. I just held the rope firm. He didn't panic, was just pulling to the side. After a few seconds he released and I gave him a scratch. Yesterday morning I did the rope thing again. This time I was in front of him. He pulled back. I could have held him firm, but I figured a big horse would be stronger than I am and thus I would have gone with a big horse, so that was what I did with Snowflake too. Allowing him to go back, but keeping him facing me and keeping a constant tension in the rope. After a few steps he stopped. I still kept the tension in the rope, but gave a step away from him so that he has more room to come forward. A few seconds later he gave that little step forward, releasing the tension in the rope. I got him to give 2 more steps toward me, this time without backing and then I quit.

This morning after I fed him. He get a hand full of Frosty's food in an ice cream container. Frosty don't want him around while she is eating, she even kick at him, just a gentle "go away" kick, so I close her in the stable and then I give him just a hand full of her food. Most of the time he don't even eat all of it. So this morning after he was done I could see he wanted his tail scratched, but I deliberately started by his neck and chest. Every now and then he would point with his nose to his tail. Eventually I made my way to his tail, but found the itchy spot was actually between his legs under his tail. I could see how much he was enjoying that.

Just wanted to give a quick update, oh and a photo, caught just the right moment.